Weight-Loss Tricks Around the World: USA Today’s Hellmich Maneuvers and China’s Weird New Roundworm Diet
Given Lab Notes’ almost Twitter-like space limitations, however, only a few of Hellmich’s tips could be cited, which is sufficiently unfortunate to serve as justification for a more elaborate summary of her various suggestions. A lot of them are staple weight-loss tips that are familiar entries on almost every list, such as drinking water prior to meals, using smaller plates and bowls, exercising two to four hours a week to accelerate weight loss, and so on. We’ll skip those.
But some others are less commonplace and/or more specific, and worth taking a moment to pass on to anyone who might not have already encountered them. Here, in brief:
• Set weight-loss goals you can actually meet: 1/2 to 2 pounds a week is reasonable.
• Familiar ploy: Get a pair of jeans or other pants too tight for you and use them as an incentive. Hellmich variation: Don’t hang them in the closet, but in your kitchen.
• Involve your family as your partners and support crew.
• Replace the fatty and sugary snack items in your home with snackable substitute veggies (carrot and celery sticks, cucumber slices) and fruits (grapes, apples, strawberries).
If you think our shortage of jobs is making people crazy, consider China, where unemployment currently stands at around 22 percent officially, and maybe much higher unofficially. However rapidly China’s cities can create new jobs, job-seekers from the vast rural expanse pour in to take them even faster. And, as is the case here, simple physical attractiveness is often a significant advantage in landing a position, especially for women, and especially to the benefit of the slim and slender.
• This has driven females entering the Chinese workforce to some drastic measures to slim down for job interviews, among them exotic pills, teas, and even soaps, acupuncture, staring at photographs for hour after hour as a kind of self-hypnosis, and showering whenever hunger strikes — up to 10 times a day or more.
Given Lab Notes’ almost Twitter-like space limitations, however, only a few of Hellmich’s tips could be cited, which is sufficiently unfortunate to serve as justification for a more elaborate summary of her various suggestions. A lot of them are staple weight-loss tips that are familiar entries on almost every list, such as drinking water prior to meals, using smaller plates and bowls, exercising two to four hours a week to accelerate weight loss, and so on. We’ll skip those.
But some others are less commonplace and/or more specific, and worth taking a moment to pass on to anyone who might not have already encountered them. Here, in brief:
• Set weight-loss goals you can actually meet: 1/2 to 2 pounds a week is reasonable.
• Familiar ploy: Get a pair of jeans or other pants too tight for you and use them as an incentive. Hellmich variation: Don’t hang them in the closet, but in your kitchen.
• Involve your family as your partners and support crew.
• Replace the fatty and sugary snack items in your home with snackable substitute veggies (carrot and celery sticks, cucumber slices) and fruits (grapes, apples, strawberries).
If you think our shortage of jobs is making people crazy, consider China, where unemployment currently stands at around 22 percent officially, and maybe much higher unofficially. However rapidly China’s cities can create new jobs, job-seekers from the vast rural expanse pour in to take them even faster. And, as is the case here, simple physical attractiveness is often a significant advantage in landing a position, especially for women, and especially to the benefit of the slim and slender.
• This has driven females entering the Chinese workforce to some drastic measures to slim down for job interviews, among them exotic pills, teas, and even soaps, acupuncture, staring at photographs for hour after hour as a kind of self-hypnosis, and showering whenever hunger strikes — up to 10 times a day or more.
